Blood Slaughter Massacre

A low budget homage to the splatter/stalker pics of the 80s from director Manny Serrano, this film has its faults, mostly due to budget restraints, but somehow it still works.

The movie kicks off with a pre-credit birthday party for a local judge whilst a mysterious ‘someone’ lurks in the bushes. When two cops (Jim and Walter) check on an anonymous call about screams at the party they stumble onto a massacre and poor old Jim gets knifed by the maniac. Roll the opening credits and we now find ourselves 10 years into the future (the 80s!) where Jim and Walter are now detectives and someone has started carving up teenagers and taking bits of them. Teenagers who are related to the original massacre victims. It seems ‘The Ripper’ is back and stalking new victims. It also seems that the town officials whitewashed the original massacre, claiming a house fire killed everyone at the party.

Jim meanwhile is having troubles of his own with a failed marriage and a ‘small’ problem with alcohol getting in the way of his official duties. When he is suspended from duty he persists though with a little help from a buddy in the coroner’s office who feeds him information. Unfortunately for Jim our killer knows he is on to him and grabs his wife as bait. The suspected killer, an alleged child molester whose daughter died in a car accident after being taken from him by the very judge who was slaughtered, leads Jim to the abandoned orphanage where, as well as his wife Jenny, Jim discovers a sacrificial altar where The Ripper is trying to resurrect his child.

So now we know what’s going on it’s time for the teen party and the girls and boys to meet The Ripper! And they do with all the usual tropes and gimmicks but done well and with real pride.

Serrano knows his stuff and doesn’t rely on CGI but uses good ol’ latex fx and blood and guts and lemme tell ya the chainsaw murder is a beautiful piece of work in itself.

Where this movie stands out is the building of characters and storyline. Sure you can pick the tropes and the influences and yes there are definitely problems caused by the low budget film making but this film overcomes those problems and with a high body count and a high booby count we are talking a good time. And let me tell you right now, I did not pick the twist. Well there’s more than one and they definitely make you view things differently once they come out.

This isn’t a film that is ever going to be viewed as a classick nor will it ever stand up to The Burning or Madman or any of the b-grade greats of the 80s – hell what does? But unlike many of the slasher low to no budget movies of the last few years, this has a story, it has character definition and it has a very, very effective killer. If only Serrano had been able to eliminate the sound issues early on and the bad lighting that gets in the way this would be damn near a perfect example of what can be done with no money but plenty of love.

Take the time to view it, let your inner critic have the night off and let me tell you, you’ll enjoy this movie. And kudos to the cover artist, this is slick of the year!! I want the t-shirt!